Last week, the movement to bring Tent City III (TC3) to campus hit opposition in the form of a Facebook group. Yesterday, supporters of the movement set up a table and distributed fliers to promote their cause outside Provost and Executive Vice President Phyllis Wise’s town-hall meeting, while both sides spoke at the forum.

“This is kind of a tactical move because we saw on the opposition Facebook group that they were planning a rally, and they were planning to come to the Phyllis Wise’s meeting today and to have a number of people voice their opinions,” said Abigail Pearl, president of Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness and a supporter of TC3 coming to campus. “We were surprised that the opposition didn’t have a bigger presence here today.”

Wise said the issue of bringing TC3 to campus has been presented to UW President Mark Emmert. Supporters hope to receive an answer by the end of the school year.

While 217 people from the opposition confirmed online that they would come to the meeting to voice their concerns, only one student spoke against bringing TC3 to campus during the forum. Roughly 20 people appeared to table in support of TC3.

“We maybe have a different level of organization than the supporters, but I don’t think that’s important,” said graduate student Christopher Moss, who spoke at the meeting. Moss opposes bringing TC3 to campus. “I think we can support our point of view based on facts and not just how many people show up wearing T-shirts.”

Some members of the opposition saw the town-hall meeting as an opportunity to have their voice heard by the UW administration after feeling underrepresented by resolutions passed by both the ASUW Senate and Graduate and Professional Student Senate in support of bringing TC3 to campus.

Supporters of TC3 didn’t plan to address the issue during the forum to keep the focus of the meeting on the budget, but they ended up responding to the opposition and presenting information to Wise.

“We, as a student organization, didn’t feel that it was appropriate to go into the budgetary meeting to discuss TC3 coming to campus because it will have negligible effects monetarily on the UW and won’t take any funds away from the general budget, so it was an inappropriate forum to discuss it,” Pearl said.

Opponents of bringing TC3 to campus also had some of their questions answered during the forum.

“In terms of budgets, I think that the supporters of Tent City have made it clear that it is funded by private donations, and I feel much better about that aspect of it,” said senior Stephen Barr, who attended the meeting. “There are still various safety concerns that have yet to be addressed, and I hope that there will be a proper forum for students, parents, faculty and staff to talk about these concerns before a decision is made.”

Students pressed for Wise’s personal opinion on the issue, but she declined to give it when asked if hosting TC3 would be educational for students.

“I think the whole issue of homelessness … is something that we study in the classroom,” Wise said. “Whether or not Tent City is one of the key ways to learn about this is the question.”

Reach editorial assistant Lexie Krell at news@dailyuw.com.